Future distribution of cotton and wheat in Australia under potential climate change

Abstract

The present study applies refined and improved scenarios for climate change to quantify the effects of potential alterations in climatic factors on localities for wheat and cotton production, which are two crops important to Australia's economy. The future distributions of 'Gossypium' (cotton) and 'Triticum aestivum' L. (wheat) were modelled using CLIMEX software with the A2 emission scenario generated by CSIRO-Mk3·0 and MIROC-H global climate models. The results were correlated to identify areas suitable for these economically important crops for the years 2030, 2050, 2070 and 2100 in Australia. The analysis shows that the areas where wheat and cotton can be grown in Australia will diminish from 2030 to 2050 and 2070 through to 2100. While cotton can be grown over extensive areas of the country until 2070, the area grown to wheat will decrease significantly over the period.